I've been brewing for a relatively long time however I have been rather shy on sharing my brews, let alone having them test in high scrutiny, however I decided that I was decent enough to at least enter and I should shed some of my cowardice. I am also someone who likes to take things way too far. So, couple months back for my first competition I decided to go BIG. I researched what where some of the more prestigious competitions in the world and came to the Frankfurt International Trophy. I have always been fond of German lagers and considered brewing a lager to enter however, maybe incorrectly, I came to the realization that entering lager in a German Lager competition would have been a foolish decision, especially when I am competition with brew masters who spent their entire lives perfecting lager. So I decided to brew one of my strong suits, and that was stout, particularly session stouts. Over the years I have developed a Oatmeal Stout Recipe which I fell in love with, however since I wanted a decent shot at winning I decided to watch the Mean Brews video on award winning Oatmeal Stout, which funnily enough my grainbill already fit the guidelines he laid out, so the only thing I really had to change where the hops and water chemistry.
This was the recipe I used:
The brewday was a rather decent one, with few mistakes being made, however one major mistake that might have costed me any awards might have been the extended protein rest and the lack of hops. I decided to forgo the flavor edition since I was being frugal when purchasing the hops, which in retrospect was a bad idea but eh. I meant to rest it at 125 F for 20 minutes but instead let it go for 30 since I was carried away with my wife on something, but once I realized how much time had passed it was too late. I then mashed at 154 F for 80 minutes, lautered, then sparged at 170F for 30 minutes. I then boiled for 75 minutes, and added my only edition of EKG at 60 minutes, which in retrospect was probably the biggest mistake I did. After the boil had completed I cooled it down to 60 F, and inoculated the wort with a dual-pitch of Imperial Darkness and WLP002. On a side note, that combination of yeast produced a beer that was wonderfully fruity, chewy, and dry while maintaining body. Fermentation was pretty simple, I held the beer at 65 F for two weeks, then brought it down to 55 F for another two weeks for secondary. One unique thing I did was that for carbonation, I bottle conditioned it with wildflower honey. It had very little flavor impact and could have easily been replaced with sucrose or dextrose, but it did the job and rather nicely. So after bottling, the beer was sent to Germany in a span of two weeks, as the competition happened a month after I sent the beers, which would have given the Stouts enough time to mature.
When I tried some of the stout in the keg, in my opinion, it was delicious, however it had two major faults. It lacked foam and had a little note of astringency. It wasn't unbearably astringent and when it first entered the mouth it acted as a lovely background flavor of roast, but the more of the beer I consumed the more it became noticeable, even if it was only barely noticeable.
After the competition, I got the results and sadly I did not win, however for such a prestigious competition I did rather decently in my opinion
I am fairly accepting on my scores, although one thing I kinda bummed me out somewhat was how relatively poorly I did on the flavor, as I thought the stout tasted great, if only lacking hop flavor. And that is also what the judges thought, but I will get more onto that later. My biggest mistake was definitely opting out on the flavor edition, and next time I compete I am going add it in, even if I do not entirely see the necessity of it in a stout. Another mistake I did was the extended protein rest, so next time I'll be more adamant in checking the time when doing such rests, however this isn't a mistake I do often I was just captivated by my lovely wife, who on a side note adored the stout! On more positive notes, I wasn't say very far off from winning a medal, as I did considerably better then others and if I where to correct my foolish mistakes, I could have a decent shot at winning next year, however after that I'm kinda competitoned out. I was considering signing up for NHC, but after my failure I don't think I'm entering anything else this year, especially with my work schedule and future projects, both beer and non-beer related, coming up.
More in-depth beer notes:
One thing I'm quite proud of is that in the quality part of their rating, I did very well, and even surpassed some award winners, who presumably, have actual breweries and brew masters. Goes to show that the experienced homebrewer is just as good as the commercial brewer! I don't see much wrong with the recipe, however if you or anyone has any critiques I'll be more than happy to hear them, I know next time I'm definitely adding the flavor edition of hops, also more hop bitterness(?) and also more roast aromas? I don't understand what they mean by that since the stout was filled with roast, but if anyone has any recommendations for that, feel free to say them.
This was the recipe I used:
The brewday was a rather decent one, with few mistakes being made, however one major mistake that might have costed me any awards might have been the extended protein rest and the lack of hops. I decided to forgo the flavor edition since I was being frugal when purchasing the hops, which in retrospect was a bad idea but eh. I meant to rest it at 125 F for 20 minutes but instead let it go for 30 since I was carried away with my wife on something, but once I realized how much time had passed it was too late. I then mashed at 154 F for 80 minutes, lautered, then sparged at 170F for 30 minutes. I then boiled for 75 minutes, and added my only edition of EKG at 60 minutes, which in retrospect was probably the biggest mistake I did. After the boil had completed I cooled it down to 60 F, and inoculated the wort with a dual-pitch of Imperial Darkness and WLP002. On a side note, that combination of yeast produced a beer that was wonderfully fruity, chewy, and dry while maintaining body. Fermentation was pretty simple, I held the beer at 65 F for two weeks, then brought it down to 55 F for another two weeks for secondary. One unique thing I did was that for carbonation, I bottle conditioned it with wildflower honey. It had very little flavor impact and could have easily been replaced with sucrose or dextrose, but it did the job and rather nicely. So after bottling, the beer was sent to Germany in a span of two weeks, as the competition happened a month after I sent the beers, which would have given the Stouts enough time to mature.
When I tried some of the stout in the keg, in my opinion, it was delicious, however it had two major faults. It lacked foam and had a little note of astringency. It wasn't unbearably astringent and when it first entered the mouth it acted as a lovely background flavor of roast, but the more of the beer I consumed the more it became noticeable, even if it was only barely noticeable.
After the competition, I got the results and sadly I did not win, however for such a prestigious competition I did rather decently in my opinion
I am fairly accepting on my scores, although one thing I kinda bummed me out somewhat was how relatively poorly I did on the flavor, as I thought the stout tasted great, if only lacking hop flavor. And that is also what the judges thought, but I will get more onto that later. My biggest mistake was definitely opting out on the flavor edition, and next time I compete I am going add it in, even if I do not entirely see the necessity of it in a stout. Another mistake I did was the extended protein rest, so next time I'll be more adamant in checking the time when doing such rests, however this isn't a mistake I do often I was just captivated by my lovely wife, who on a side note adored the stout! On more positive notes, I wasn't say very far off from winning a medal, as I did considerably better then others and if I where to correct my foolish mistakes, I could have a decent shot at winning next year, however after that I'm kinda competitoned out. I was considering signing up for NHC, but after my failure I don't think I'm entering anything else this year, especially with my work schedule and future projects, both beer and non-beer related, coming up.
More in-depth beer notes:
One thing I'm quite proud of is that in the quality part of their rating, I did very well, and even surpassed some award winners, who presumably, have actual breweries and brew masters. Goes to show that the experienced homebrewer is just as good as the commercial brewer! I don't see much wrong with the recipe, however if you or anyone has any critiques I'll be more than happy to hear them, I know next time I'm definitely adding the flavor edition of hops, also more hop bitterness(?) and also more roast aromas? I don't understand what they mean by that since the stout was filled with roast, but if anyone has any recommendations for that, feel free to say them.
